Dana Wynter: The Classic Elegance of Hollywood

Dana Wynter, born Dagmar Winter on June 8, 1931, in Berlin, built an international career that took her to work in England, Southern Rhodesia, and the United States. Her artistic activity developed mainly in the 1950s and 1960s, with significant roles in classic Hollywood cinema.

In 1955, 20th Century Fox signed her, and in the same year, she shared the Golden Globe as a promising newcomer alongside Anita Ekberg and Victoria Shaw. The role that made her famous was Becky Driscoll in Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), a science fiction film directed by Don Siegel, symbolizing the anti-communist paranoia of the era. The film is considered a classic of the genre and consolidated Wynter’s presence in the cinematic landscape.

In 1956, she starred in D-Day the Sixth of June with Robert Taylor, a drama set during World War II. The following year, she starred in Something of Value with Rock Hudson and Sidney Poitier, a film addressing the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya. In 1958, she appeared in Fräulein and In Love and War, confirming her position in high-level cinema.

In 1959, she acted in Shake Hands with the Devil with James Cagney, while in 1960 she played Anne Davis in Sink the Bismarck!, a British war thriller. In 1961, she was Lady Margaret MacKenzie-Smith in On the Double with Danny Kaye, and in 1963 she participated in The List of Adrian Messenger, a mystery directed by John Huston.

In 1970, she portrayed Cindy Bakersfeld in Airport, a disaster film that grossed over $100 million and received ten Oscar nominations, winning one for Best Supporting Actress (Helen Hayes). Dana Wynter, however, never received personal Academy Award nominations.

From the 1960s, she focused on television, appearing in series such as The Virginian, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Wagon Train, Cannon, The Rockford Files, The Love Boat, and Hart to Hart. In 1968, she starred in the ABC series The Man Who Never Was with Robert Lansing.

On a personal level, Wynter married Greg Bautzer, a well-known Hollywood attorney, in 1956. The marriage lasted until 1981, and they had a son, Mark Ragan Bautzer, born in 1960. She lived between California and Ireland, owning a residence in Glendalough, County Wicklow, and an apartment in Dublin. She was active against apartheid, refusing to participate in the opening of a cultural center in South Africa due to the segregation policies in place.

In the 1980s, she devoted herself to journalism, writing the “Grassroots” column for The Guardian, with articles collected in the volumes Irish Eyes and California Eyes.

Her last television role was in 1993 with The Return of Ironside. Dana Wynter died on May 5, 2011, in Ojai, California, from congestive heart failure.